


Expectations

by cndyprfumegirl



Series: You Are My Home [2]
Category: Demet Ozdemir, Dogdugun Ev Kaderindir, Ibrahim Celikkol, Turkish Dizi - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23238475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cndyprfumegirl/pseuds/cndyprfumegirl
Relationships: Zeynep Goksu & Mehdi Karaca
Series: You Are My Home [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670797
Kudos: 2





	Expectations

When Mehdi gets home from work, he hears laughter coming from the kitchen. He guesses his sisters are in there gossipping and making dinner, and it makes him smile and shake his head fondly. He loves his sisters--they have always coddled him, their little brother. Because of them, Mehdi never lacked love and affection, and as soon as he was able to, he started working to make sure they would always be taken care of.

He still works for them. And now he works to take care of his wife, too, but he would never tell her that. She's not the kind of woman who needs to be taken care of, but he wants to take care of her just the same.

He wonders if Zeynep is home yet. She had an exam today, and she has another one tomorrow. He wouldn't be surprised if she stayed late at the library to study; it's almost impossible to study in this house. If he's honest with himself, he's looking forward to her getting home; he loves it when she tells him about her day.

He heads toward the kitchen and, as he gets closer, he realizes there are too many voices for it to just be his sisters. He stops in the doorway and a slow smile spreads over his face as he watches the scene in front of him.

Zeynep is still in the clothes she wore to class--a fitted knee-length skirt and a fitted sweater. Her sleeves are pushed up to her elbows and she's replaced her boots with slippers, as is the custom in their house. This morning when she left the house, her long dark hair was loose, flowing down her back in soft waves. Mehdi remembers, because his fingers itched to touch it and feel its silkiness. Now, she has a colorful scarf tied around her head to keep her hair back. He recognizes it as belonging to his sister, Cemile.

"Okay, Zeynep, now add a little more flour," Mujgan says, watching her closely.

Zeynep nods very seriously and picks up the measuring cup full of flour and tips it over. At first, nothing comes out, so she taps it lightly with her other hand and Mehdi sees a cloud of flour dust rise up from the mixing bowl as Zeynep dumps in more flour than she means to. Her eyes close and her eyebrows come together, making a little wrinkle appear between them, before she looks up apologetically at Mujgan. "I'm sorry!"

Cemile laughs at her. "It's okay, canım. Don't worry. We can fix it. It will still be delicious borek."

Mujgan smiles. "Nothing to be sorry for, Zeynep. It happens." She shrugs. "Okay, so now get your hands back in there and mix it together."

"Okay," Zeynep says, plunging her hands into the flour and water mixture, mixing it together. "Like this?"

"Yes! Yes, just like that. You're doing fine," Mujgan says, looking at her with a proud smile. "You'll be a pro in no time. This is Mehdi's favorite; he will be so pleased."

"It's impossible to finish it before he comes home, isn't it," Zeynep says, her hands still working the dough.

Mehdi's smile gets bigger when he hears that she wanted to know how to make his favorite dish.

"I'm afraid so," Cemile says. "But that's okay, dinner is already ready and he will be happy to have this for breakfast in the morning."

Mehdi clears his throat to let them know he's there, and he walks into the kitchen. All three of the women look up at him.

"A-a, Mehdi! When did you get here?" Mujgan asks, reaching up to kiss his cheek.

"Just now," he says. "What's going on here? What have you gotten Zeynep into?" Sometimes it's on the tip of his tongue to refer to her as "my wife," but he doesn't feel like it's the right time yet; he doesn't know how she'd feel about it.

Zeynep smiles at him and takes her hands out of the dough. "Your sisters are teaching me to make borek," she says, obviously pleased with herself. "I wanted to make something you'd like, and they told me it's your favorite," she says shyly. She pushes a strand of hair away from her forehead with the back of her hand, leaving a streak of flour on her skin.

He steps toward her and wipes the flour away, his thumb stroking back and forth over her smooth skin until the flour is gone. She stands perfectly still and looks up at him with wide eyes, and he thinks about the first time they met, when he wiped the mud from her jaw in his garage and she looked at him the same way. "Eyvallah," he says, inclining his head and giving her a soft smile.

"I hope it will be okay. I really have never cooked anything before," she admits.

"It will be perfect, Zeynep," he says, running his hand over the scarf on her head before drawing his hand away and putting it in his pocket. "I appreciate you thinking of me, but I know you have exams to study for. How was today's exam?"

Her face lights up and she bounces up and down on the balls of her feet a little. "I think I did very well! I was confident about all my answers."

His eyes soften. "I'm proud of you. After you're finished with this, we will give you some privacy and quiet so you can study, tamam mı?"

"Tamam," she answers in a quiet voice. She doesn't know when it became so important to her to have Mehdi's approval, but his encouragement and his interest in her schooling makes her want to make him proud of her in every way.

Mehdi's sisters just stand there watching, both of them wearing gleeful smiles. They love Zeynep, and they have seen the spark between her and their brother since the first time they met her. Seeing them grow closer has them overjoyed.

Mujgan finally speaks up. "Zeynep, we didn't know you had another exam tomorrow. This will take a long time. Why don't we put it aside for tonight and we can continue the lesson when you are finished with your term? We will finish this one for you, and next time we will let you do everything yourself."

"I'm sorry, really. I wanted to do it," she says with a little pout. Mehdi's urge to kiss the pout off her face is overwhelming, and he steps back a little. 

"We know you did, and you will!" Cemile says. "Let's have dinner now."

"I'll wake mother up from her nap," Mujgan says, "and I'll get your daughter, too. She's upstairs doing her homework."

Mehdi and Zeynep can't stop looking at each other at dinner. The family notices, but they don't say anything; they just smile at each other across the table.

Later, as they get ready for bed, Mehdi comes to stand behind her as she brushes through her hair in front of the mirror. She stops what she's doing and places the brush on top of the dresser. Her eyes meet his in their reflections.

"I hope you don't feel pressured to act like my mother's idea of a wife for me, Zeynep. I don't know what she says to you when I'm not here, but I have no such expectations of you. I don't want you to neglect your schooling for me."

She shakes her head. "I won't, Mehdi. It's not just your mother," she smirks at him, and he chuckles under his breath. "But she's right. It's just...I don't know how to do anything. Everything was always done for me. My...well, my other mother, she had people to cook and clean and do everything for her. I don't want to be a burden here; I want to be able to help. I know the education I am getting at school is important, but what I can learn from your mother and your sisters is just as important. I want to be able to make a home and take care of our family someday."

Family. She wants a family. With him. An image of her smiling up at him, holding a dark-eyed baby girl comes to his mind, and he can't think of anything he wants more. "You're an incredible woman. You always surprise me," he says. He puts his hands on her shoulders and leans down to kiss the top of her head.

She smiles, her eyes shining up at him. "I hope I always will."


End file.
